Skateistan finds Bank!

Friday, May 02, 2008

My good friend Jeremy spotted a fountain in town that had 'skate' potential. So we got the crew together and headed down to check it out.

Nabil is taking skateistan so serious that he has downloaded 'How to skate' videos off the internet and transfered them to his iPod. Here he shows the others his latest trick.

Every session we are lucky enough to witness pioneering skateboard feats. Here Murwais attempts the first ever 'drop in' by an Afghan.

It didnt take long for a crowd to gather and after they watched for a while, kids climbed in and had a go at riding these strange moving objects.

Our current program is to teach our crew to ride well enough so they can start to teach the younger Afghan youths themselves.

The children are so keen to give it a go. We can't wait to get the shoes here so we can protect their feet while they learn.

The fountain turned out to be quite 'skateable'. It had a circular bank, enough semi smooth concrete in the middle and even a lip for the daring rider.

Last week a good friend donated a generous amount of money to skateistan. When we asked her why she had been so generous, she told us it was a reward for prducing the first ever female skater. Well today we got a second girl on board.

And she loved it!

Hameed attacked the bank with confidence, while the 'new kids on the block' watched in awe.

So we have a new location to skate. Its relatively smooth, its got characteristics and appears to be in a safe environment. We dont know how longer we can skate there, but until the skate park is built, its the best we got.